Can an Online Game Help Stop Sexual Assault on Campus?

If you saw someone being aggressively catcalled, what would you do? Say something? Do nothing? What if you noticed a young woman looking uncomfortable as a man seated next to her put his hand on her upper thigh? Would you ask if she was okay?

A new interactive online game called Decisions that Matter, built by students at Carnegie Mellon University, is attempting to help you answer these questions. In the game, which the school plans to have students participate in this fall, each player is put in various simulated situations involving sexual assault. Players are bystanders, not victims, and as they move through the game, every decision they make produces a different outcome, which is part of what makes the game so noteworthy: It refuses to put the burden of preventing sexual assault on victims.

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"I'm very wary of things that focus on 'violence prevention' because when some of these products come on the market, like apps, or things like anti-rape underwear, all they do is put the responsibility of prevention on the survivor. That's not okay," says Jess Klein, the coordinator of gender programs and sexual violence prevention at Carnegie Mellon University.

Last semester, Klein was approached by two professors, assistant teaching professor Ralph Vituccio and special faculty member Andy Norman, who teach an inner-disciplinarian class tackling issues of justice through technology and multimedia. This year they wanted to create something that focused on sexual assault, which could have future use as an effective tool for bystander awareness. Students had 15 weeks to research, design, write, and build the game.

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"I told them that I can't see another product that puts the burden on the survivor. I really wanted this to focus on something else, like the importance of being an active bystander," she says. "But it's not only about teaching bystanders how to act in that very moment, but about the complexities of sexual violence and assault on a continuum... because catcalling is also a form of sexual violence. Not many people think about it that way."

Klein, 30, believes that telling young women to be careful with their drinks, to watch their surroundings, and to carry things like pepper spray "just in case" simply perpetuates a long-ingrained problem. "What we need to be focusing on is primary prevention, which is changing a culture. Like bystander intervention and education as a whole—these do a lot better than things that only focus on secondary prevention: self-defense classes, anti-rape condoms, apps that allow you to call for help. Products like these say, 'Look at this effort we're making to prevent violence,' and 'At least we're doing something.' My argument is how many years are going to go by saying 'This is good enough for now,' or 'This is a good step.' People are misguided; they think that any kind of prevention is the best kind of prevention. But I'm tired of the messages we keep giving to survivors. It's enough already."

"I'm tired of the messages we keep giving to survivors. It's enough already."

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Carnegie Mellon isn't alone in taking the primary approach. Columbia University has also started a "sexual respect initiative" aimed at prevention: to "help create and build a consent-based community on campus where sexual violence is NOT tolerated." It offers workshops in "pro-social bystander intervention strategy" to teach safe and effective ways to intervene in situations of sexual violence, intimate partner violence, stalking, and harassment. Likewise, Duke University participates in a program called Duke Splash, where students teach weekend classes to high school youth about gender violence, and on a national level, the Obama Administration is also trying to engage students with the recent launch of the It's On Us campaign, which encourages campus communities to actively think about ways to prevent sexual assault. The game thing, though, is new and unique to Carnegie Mellon.

Klein believes that workshops and campaigns like this can be effective, as long as they are approached correctly: with interaction and dialogue, and not simply checking boxes in terms of education compliance. "If you are facing a room full of fraternity men, about to give them a presentation on sexual assault, I'm not going to walk in there and act like they are the problem. It's about empowering them by saying you have the power to be better, you have the power to focus on this and be a part of the prevention movement, instead of making them feel like crap," she explains.

Taking students' concerns seriously is also important, Klein says. "We all grow up in very different places, learning attitudes that come from our parents and teachers, so we all think very differently about these types of issues. But the approach to it, the way you decide to talk about it with people, can eliminate that tension and create greater understanding. That's really powerful. The approach is so important."

Indeed, Professor Norman hopes that their approach, with the interactive online game, will be a game-changer. "One of the really important research findings we built this game on was one that basically indicates that you can actually change cultures in ways that reduce incidents of sexual assaults. It starts with people's willingness—sometimes a small, sometimes a greater social risk—in calling people out on their behavior," he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Klein agrees. "We need to start educating people to not catcall. People need to understand why that is sexist and objectification, and how if that type of behavior—or harmful attitudes—go unchecked, they can turn into more harmful behaviors. We're not taking those opportunities," she says. "This game gives you the opportunity to decide what in the world you would do if a friend of yours is being catcalled. Do you sit there? Do you say something? What do you do?"